Remove Enimies From The Wasteland?

[joptimus]

Hey guys!

 

I'm working on an episode of a machinima series I'm involved with, and I want to shoot a scene with my characters in the Super Duper Mart parking lot. I only have one problem...there's raiders there.

 

I've had someone suggest moving the markers underground to prevent them from appearing...but that's done nothing to help my cause. This would be very valuable information for me, as I have a lot of situations where I could use some empty exteriors, so any help would be much appreciated.

 

Thanks!

[pkleiss]

Just mark those raider leveled character markers as initially disabled. Moving them below ground isn't a good solution for NPCs as they will generally pop up to the nearest navmesh. That method will work for most everything else. But the best method, like I said, that works for everything is to simply mark it as initially disabled.

[BadPenney]

You can also just delete things that you don't want to include.

 

That is a bad idea for a mod, but if you are just setting up a scene for a vidoe then you don't have to worry about compatibility issues. You can make an .esp for each scene that you intend to create, then when you are done with the shoot either disable and archive the .esp file just to be safe or simply delete it if you are certain that you will not need to revisit for a reshoot. Then move on to the next scene with another .esp. If you have elements that you want to show in many scenes (for instance NPCs) then you can create a file for them that becomes a master when creating plot scenes.

 

It is a lot like making a movie, in that the only thing that matters is what the camera sees.

[pkleiss]

While I agree with BadPenny in theory, in practice I have seen instances where so much goes wrong when deleting vanilla objects that it could still affect the ability to shoot the scene. Some of the manifestations of deleting vanilla objects that I have personally seen include: CTDs (this would certainly affect the ability to shoot a scene), objects becoming unselectable in the geck such that you cannot move/modify/delete/interact with them, form ID swaps - what was once a rock is now a bed, piles of loot from killed enemies falling from the sky and falling in one location all at once, yet there is no ability to pick them up, etc..., etc...

 

While it is possible that you could delete some vanilla objects and not come across anything that would adversely affect your ability to shoot scenes, it is my humble opinion that it is not worth the risk as it is almost as easy to just mark the objects you don't want in the scene as initially disabled. On the other hand, if you do spend the time deleting objects and you encounter some massive weirdness, you will end up spending a whole lot of time trying to correct the issues and may have to just start over.

 

Your call...

[BadPenney]

Theory, but not an untested one. Here is probably my favorite mechanisma of my own creation:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iexH0VTh5FQ

 

It began with my mod as a base, but I used the throw away type of edits that I described in the previous post. When the video was done and edited I just deleted the variation of my mod that I used to shoot it. I seriously doubt that deleting a few NPC spawn points for the purposes of scene editing will result in any dire results. It will definitely prevent the unwanted NPCs from making an appearance and I certainly haven't seen anything like cats and dogs raining from the sky in the vids that I have made.

 

As I stated earlier, don't try this for a finished mod, as it can indeed be disastrous for something meant to integrate with a player's game. But this is just a quick and dirty, fire and forget method for the sake of a video capture.

 

But, yes indeed, it is your call.

[pkleiss]

This is just an FYI for that loot rain I mentioned....

 

I was trying to fix up a mod this fellow made where he modified the parking lot next to the red rider factory. He has placed a map marker there and a raider camp with a bunch of raiders. He was getting CTDs as the player approached the area, and I offered to look into it for him. He had deleted much of the original content of the parking lot and added his stuff. If I blew up one of the many cars in the parking lot, several others would also blow up and this had the effect of killing most of the raiders in the area. All of their loot would fall from the sky at the position of the map marker, but it couldn't be picked up.The raider corpses had no loot. It was a bit funny, actually. Eventually, he just abandoned the area and started over with another location.

 

But, yea, this was a playable mod and not just a location for a scene. For, the few videos I have made to play as binks in my mod, I have just made copies of the cells just for the purpose of making the vids. So, I agree with you that there is a difference. Its just that I have spent so much time helping others fix stuff that was caused by deleting vanilla objects, that I have become absolutely opposed to the idea no matter what. Just call me jaded. :tongue:

[Khet]

For the record, there is a difference between removing some spawn points, removing objects from an area (as described above by pkleiss) and PROPERLY removing objects from an area. You must always ensure that you are not destroyed a permanent reference when removing an object. That is what causes problems. The solution? FO3edit's un-delete and disable reference options. If a permanent reference was removed by a mod, FO3 edit will return the object to it's original location and state, but disable it so the player never sees it in game.

 

as for removing a few spawn points... just select them in the world and press the delete key. Nothing bad will come of such a thing, as I do not think that any of the spawn points in, or around, the super duper mart are persistant references, and thus a simple deleting won't cause issues.

 

 

Moral of the story? Deleting objects is fine. Delete permanent references is bad.